Fourth Sunday of Lent

The two books of the Old Testament known as I and II Chronicles are relatively unknown to Catholic Christians. They were probably never considered of great importance as even their name indicates in older English translation Bibles. That name: Paralipomenon – an English transliteration of a G...Read full story »

Thursday, March 08, 2018

Third Sunday of Lent

The first reading for this Sunday consists of the first edition of the Decalogue, also called the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words. The second edition is found in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. There are differences, no doubt due to the different sources of the two editions, and the passage of time between t...Read full story »

Thursday, March 01, 2018

Second Sunday of Lent

The near-sacrifice by Abraham of his only son Isaac, Genesis 22, is the first reading for this Sunday. For many years Abraham and Sarah had been hoping for a son. So desperate had they become that Sarah turned over to Abraham her own slave girl Hagar to generate a child. This child was named Ishmae...Read full story »

Thursday, February 22, 2018

First Sunday of Lent

As the annual season of Lent begins, the Scriptural readings turn to the opening book of the Bible. In the theological plan of instruction intended by authors and editors of the Book of Genesis, God never gave up on his wayward human creatures. It all began with the ideal existence of a man and a w...Read full story »

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first reading for this Sunday is from the Book of Leviticus. This is the third book in our Bible. It is also called the Third Book of Moses or the Third Book of the Torah (teaching or law) or the Third Book of the Pentateuch (of the five scrolls). The Hebrew title of a biblical book is ta...Read full story »

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first reading for this Sunday is an excerpt from the Book of Job. Like so much of the Old and New Testament, we are not reading a biography or history of a man named Job. Instead, we are reading a long debate attempting to solve a problem which cannot be solved entirely in this world – Wh...Read full story »

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Levites who composed the Book of Deuteronomy included some teachings of which it could be said that the less they are known, so much the better. But they also included some of the most beautiful expressions and instructions in the Old Testament. For example, “You shall love the Lord your...Read full story »

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The first reading for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is a selection from the Book of Jonah. Jonah’s first call to go to Nineveh, to the east, is omitted together with his foolish decision to take a cruise westward on the Mediterranean. The grumpy and disobedient prophet ended up in t...Read full story »

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Ordinary Time” begins today and will lead us to the season of Lent. The boy Samuel was born as a special gift to a woman who sadly had remained childless. She made a promise to the Lord at the shrine of the Ark of the Covenant at Shiloh that, if the Lord would give her a son, she would...Read full story »

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Our four Gospels are an early form of catechesis, instruction for Christians. Some of that instruction was directed to current problems in the Christian Community in which Matthew was active. The best hypothesis is that the Gospel of Matthew originates in the Christian Community of Antioch in Syria...Read full story »